The present invention as disclosed in the paragraphs which follow can be employed in connection with an inspection and cutting apparatus such as what is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,520,702. The contents of this previous patent is incorporated by reference herein. U.S. Pat. No. 4,520,702 addressed a perceived problem then existing in the industry relative to the processing of elongated articles such as sliced potatoes utilized for frozen French fries, and wherein the elongated articles were first aligned in transversely spaced lanes and then passed beneath individual lane electro-optical cameras for inspecting the sliced potatoes for defects. In the previous prior art arrangements, if defects were encountered in the sliced potatoes one or more knives on a rotating wheel was projected or propelled from the wheel to cut the defect from the article. Various earlier U.S. patents such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,543,035 and 3,664,337 describes such earlier devices. These prior art devices were deemed to be not very effective because it was very difficult to process large volumes of product utilizing the equipment illustrated in these previous prior art patents. U.S. Pat. No. 4,520,702 also describes various other prior art attempts to solve the perceived limitations on the processing of elongated articles that might have defects. The inventors in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,520,702 and 6,923,028, for example, describe an invention which provides high volume inspection and cutting for removing defects from elongated articles with resulting equipment that is quite inexpensive and robust relative to its production capacity.
The device as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,520,702 for example has been widely embraced by the food processing industry and has operated with a great degree of success through the years. While this apparatus as described in this prior art patent has operated quite reliably for several decades. there have been several shortcomings which have detracted from its usefulness. The first shortcoming that has been noted, and only occasionally, individual cutter knives employed in the apparatus as described, above, and when rotated at predetermined operational speeds occasionally would prematurely move and then be ejected to a radially, outwardly disposed orientation, and thereafter engage the elongated food product being processed without first being deployed by the cutting apparatus. This premature deployment of a cutting knife to the radially extended cutting position could occasionally cause the cutting knife to undesirably cut the sliced potatoes and/or become damaged. In addition to the foregoing the cutting knives employed to date have been fabricated from a synthetic material and due to normal wear and tear, and routine operating conditions, such prior art cutting knives or blades would occasionally break and needed to be replaced. This type of wear related failure is expected from time-to-time in devices of this type. However, depending upon the product to be cut, and inspected, such replacement of the cutting knives can sometimes be time consuming and inconvenient during typical food processing plant operations.
To address the perceived shortcomings as noted above, a cutting apparatus employing a magnet was developed and deployed in the field and is now fully disclosed and seen in U.S. Pat. No. 8,978,530. This particular cutting apparatus includes a cutter knife which is reciprocally moveable along a path of travel, and wherein the cutting knife is reliably held and then deployed from a retracted position, to an extended position, and then held in an appropriate orientation by the use of a magnet as described in that reference. While the device as illustrated and disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,978,530 has operated with a good deal of success, the inventors have endeavored to develop a cutting wheel employing magnets, and wherein faster processing speeds may be achieved, and higher reliability gained than what is possible in the prior art device as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 8,978,530. Therefore, the principal object of the present invention is to provide an improvement to the cutting apparatus as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,978,530 and which provides enhanced performance and other operational characteristics not possible heretofore in a device such as what has been described in this, and previous U.S. patents.